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Old Anthystrian Wiki
Hello and welcome! This is a wiki I created to show off the language I plan to use in a series of short stories I am currently writing in my spare time. A Brief Introduction Old Anthystrian is created to be the ancient language of a region called Anthystra. I created this language with the intent that it would look like a classical language of today such as Greek or Latin, to accomplish this appearance I created it so that most words would have many long vowels and it would be a highly inflected language. Also in order to resemble a classical language it will be spoken by a once expansive empire that eventually falls into a legendary part of history, and a lot of the same themes seen in these civilizations will be found in the Anthystrian language and its artifacts. Themes such as praising ancient deities and celestial bodies, great ambition among famous individuals, and perhaps some interaction with other languages and their cultures and how that would change them. Prior to this project I did not have solid a direction on the world I wanted to create, but when I began thinking about how I should incorporate the themes I mentioned above it allowed me to better imagine the world my language resides in, and from that I gained the foundation on which to start building the character of my language. Phonology Diphthongs The only diphthong commonly seen in Old Anthystrian is /aɪ̯/, it is written as ai ''(a common example is the infix ''-ai-'' which denotes the word is plural) '''Consonants' Consonants in Old Anthystrian are very similar to consonants in English. The only notable difference is the lack of /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /x/ Phonological Constraints Native root words may only end in a vowel or in er. The diphthong ai' '''will only appear at the beginning of a word or after the first consonant. Also words begining with /l/ is not as common in roots that can easily take a verb form as all verb prefixes already end with an l. Morphology Anthystrian is an agglutinative language. It uses a combination of different affixes to transform each root word into several different forms. '''Verb affixes' These affixes when attached to a root word make that noun into a verb and also signal whether that verb is in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person. Note: Verbs that take -fys do not need to also have fhĕl- as it is redundant Tenses (SECTION NEEDS UPDATING) The simple past and simple future are also represented with affixes attached to whatever verb form is created from above. The simple future is ''-jo-'' which is an infix between the verb prefix and the root word; unless the verb takes a suffix, in that cause ''-jo-'' is simply a prefix. The past tense is ''-rys-'' and functions the exact same as ''-jo-''. Plural To indicate that a word is plural in Old Anthystrian, the infix -ai- is added. The rules for added the infix are very flexible, it may even appear to a reader that as long as it is simply in the right area of a word it works, but once recognised the patterns are quite predictable. If a word ends in CCV, which is common for native words, the infix is placed between the consonants as C-ai-CV; however words may end with VCV, in this case the consonant may be repeated (used mostly in poetry or for stylistic purposes) or more commonly the -ai- will come after the last consonant, so both VC''-ai-''CV and VC-ai-V are possible. In cases where a root word ends in an /r/ the ''-ai-'' becomes a suffix, this is thought to be because a common ending is /r/V so /aɪ̯/ falling after an /r/ sound seems natural. Examples: aketra ''(sing.) to ''aketaira (pl.) satra (sing.) to sataira ''(pl.) ''eseva (sing.) to esevaia (pl.) ysiter ''(sing.) to ''ysiterai ''(pl.) '''Noun cases' Noun cases are always suffixes. Verbs from Nouns Most root words in Old Anthystrian are nouns, and from those root words, verbs are derived by adding the appropriate affix. This allows you to take any specifically relevent thing or idea and convert it into an action, Anthystrian poetry is a good example of a place where words that are not usually nouns are often used, however it's also not unusual to see this done in speeches where the author is simply trying to evoke a specific thought or create a certain style. In the sentence below you can see how this can create a pattern of repetition. Although in this style the verb created may not have the best corresponding English translation. þas esevat esevafys, þas ysitert ysiterfys Which reads "Flow like the river, shine like the stars" but literally says "River as the river, star as the stars." Nouns with implied verbs Since verbs are so easily created from nouns it became possible to forego the verb altogether in some contexts. This is typically seen when a contextually relevent verb can be derived from the noun which has to be the subject of the sentence and the reader can easily assume what action is being done. This is always indicated by the suffix ''-res.'' For example "kaitrares keseverait'" literally says "The leader ... the soldiers" but from ''-res we can assume that a verb derived from the noun leader is missing, therefore the absent verb would be leading. However to say that the verb is implied may be incorrect, as Anthystrian speakers would likely just think of kaitrares to be functioning as both the subject and the verb. This type of construction can also be used with names, though it is very rare and is not used as a common part of every day speech unless the person is famous for particular actions and you are actively describing something that person would likely do, has done, or is doing. It can be used in certain things that translate well as common English phrases, like "He's just being himself" could possibly be said with just adding ''-res'' to their name in reply to a question. Sample texts These sentences are a collection of pieces I made to showcase the sounds and some grammar rules of Old Anthystrian. #''jerys ykeslat þĕlsataira, nyrat vekotr þĕlsenaiza'' #''ykeslares anþystrat'' #''ylestra anþystralys'' #''retta zetlat vhĕlasotla'' #''retta zetlat vhĕlasotla wer þer pajerat vhĕlaiker'' #''kosdrafys ykeslat'' #''sa joaisivtr siv jos setrafys se... ''(incomplete, I made this line to try and create some sort of alliterative verse) Change over Time Having created Old Anthystrian to mirror a classical language, I also gave some thought to how it would evolve and change since I created it with the intent to go extinct or to evolve into something else from the start. Since I created most affixes to make the appearance of a Nordic type language in contrast to the more classical Mediterranean appearing root words, I decided to look to how modern Scandanavian languages evolved from Old Norse. I imagine specifically that in the language that Old Anthystrian would evolve into, the changes would be similar to the way Danish has changed over time. In modern Danish most words are pronounced nothing like they are spelled; vowels and consonants are assimilated or reduced. I also have been experimenting with trying to give the language a pitch accent, as in Norwegian or Swedish. '''Sound change Most all vowel sounds will be shortened or dropped, and some consonants assimilated. For example, the verb to approach/go toward is vekotr, ''over time this would be pronounced as simply ''vĕktr. Pitch accent In modern Norwegian, the pitch accent can function as a morphological indicator. I was thinking of using this as an inspiration to make a pitch accent convey that something is a direct object or a different grammatical use of what would otherwise look like the same word. Transition from an inflected language I also would change Old Anthystrian from a highly inflected language to a language that is not so inflected but still keeps some of the cases and forms. Such as the way German still emphasizes accusative and dative, but is more or less very similar to English. ---- Thanks for reading! Category:Browse